I think we can all remember back to the day where those cheesy commercials would come out with some famous cartoon character asking kids not to smoke. “Don’t Smoke” had been the mantra to our children since my grandfather’s time. I think it’s making a comeback, and I have evidence.

Exhibit A: Our president has been fighting the cigarette habit and has been winning for nine months.

B: The News has been eating it up.

C. Castro smokes cigars.

I can just see the new commercial with our commander in chief asking kids not to be communist dictators, but peace loving, non-smoking Americans. Never mind the fact that Castro has been in power for about fifty years. Dang, he must be in his eighties. And has anyone seen him without a huge, Cuban cigar stemming from his teeth? No. But then again, those are better than cigarettes. Nasty little buggers.

All this to say, don’t settle for the cheap stuff, go for the good. If you want to make it a habit, the best way to slow it down is to make it expensive. That is why it is hard to get drunk from good whiskey. You can buy a bottle of the cheap paint thinner for about as much as one shot of the sweet ambrosia that melts my heart.

Naw, I’m just kidding. Only the love of my life, Hannah, melts my heart. But I digress, please kids, don’t smoke cigarettes. If you are male and want to be like C.S. Lewis, smoke a good pipe with some beer around the fireplace, or in a decent pub. Don’t be like Mr. President, who now has to try to quit because he smokes the stuff hobos are made of.